The plan represents "greed in its ugliest form," said Bishop Douglas Miles of Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development, one of the major opponents of Baltimore's tax-increment financing plan.

At an estimated 6.5 percent interest rate, Beatty would collect millions from the public financing deal, termed "double dipping" by opponents of the arrangement. If Beatty "can afford to buy $35 million worth of bonds, he could have afforded to invest in the project and reduce the TIF," Miles told the Sun.